... Compulsory public schooling, you see, is
determined to make students incapable of original
creative thought or finding the truth. Truth is
impossible to discover without options; if learning
were as optional as church, there would be no need
for compulsion. Compulsory public school is not a
sanctuary for free reason, but a Skinner Box for
conditioning the population to obey authority, and a
grading machine for awarding social perquisites.

A student who challenges the authorized text,
whether it be Smith, Darwin, Einstein, Saint Mark,
or Montessori, cannot get a diploma --- or gainful
employment --- or a mortgage --- or safe sex, as in
monogamy. Anyone who does not need an academic
diploma to earn a livelihood is invited to argue the
logic of these stories in a classroom to be judged by
the students. The author was expelled four times for
devastating classroom discipline by incontrovertible
demonstrations obvious even to children; it cost a lot
of employment, credit, and sexual opportunities to
persever. University science is more of the same in
Greek.

[END QUOTE]

The full text is available on the Web.

When my kids were below the age of eight or so, I used
to discuss all sorts of fascinating subjects with them: philo-
sophy, engineering, social justice. Now Cyrus -- the older
one, who loves school -- talks only about engineering: the
other interests have been weaned out of him (or at least so
it seems to me). Arthur, the younger, who hates school and
refuses to go there, still discusses philosophy and logic
with me; but none of his friends -- who do go to school --
like these subjects, and as a result he has waned to some
degree in the extent (though not in his skill) in his philo-
sophical discussions with me.

Hopefully they will take my words to heart: "Don't accept
anything your teachers say unless you have thought about
what thay have said, put it into practice, and found for your-
self that it is true." At least they are willing (and even eager)
to do this: both of them.

But when they get into high school, let alone university,
they will find their way to "advancement" blocked unless
they, too, learn the three r's -- reading, remembering and
regurgitating!

It's a terrible fate. There may be Sudbury Schools, but there
are no "Sudbury Universities"!